The Strand Study Bible

PROVERBS PROVERBS - In order to attend Harvard back in 1636 one had to abide by its founding statement. It read, “The main end of your life is to know God and Jesus Christ.” 160 years later in 1796 that purpose was updated to, “If you doubt the inspiration of the Scriptures you are subject to immediate dismissal from Harvard.” - In order to attend Yale back in 1701 one had to have a personal walk with God and to pray publicly twice a day. In a letter to the French ministry, March 1778, Benjamin Franklin (who attended Yale) is attributed with writing: Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world. 1 - In order to attend Princeton back in 1746 one had to honor its code. Its first president, Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, declared: Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ. 1 - Pastor John Witherspoon, then president of Princeton and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, personally trained 87 of the 243 founding fathers. He stated in 1776: …he is the best friend to American liberty, who is the most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind.. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not [do not hesitate] to call him an enemy of his country. 1 - Samuel Adams (then governor of Mass.) stated in a letter to his cousin John Adams (then vice president) on October 4, 1790: 983 It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 3 Many of our founding fathers were Christians, not religionists. - Governor Moore, who physically wrote the constitution, noted in a letter to France: Religion is the only solid basis for good morals, therefore, education should teach the precepts of religion and duties of man toward God. 4 - Noah Webster, who fought in the American Revolution, spent nine terms in the Connecticut legislator, three terms in the Massachusetts legislator, and four terms as a judge advocate, stated in the preface of his life’s work (An American Dictionary of the English language): In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government aught to be instructed… the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” Webster went on to say, “All of the miseries and evils which men suffer… they all perceive from their despising and neglecting of the precepts contained in the Bible.” 1 - George Washington (1st president), in summing up forty-five years of service to his country in a farewell address, is attributed with the statement: It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. 1 - John Adams (2nd president) stated in his diary entry dated February 22, 1756: God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever. 1 It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage… Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. 1 - Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice under President James Madison, stated in a speech at Harvard in 1829: There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations… 1 - John Quincy Adams (6th president) stated in a letter written in December of 1814: I perceive that the Trinitarians and the Unitarians in Boston are sparring together…Most of the Boston Unitarians are my particular friends, but I never thought much of the eloquence or the theology of Priestly. His Socrates and Jesus Compared is a wretched performance. Socrates and Jesus! A farthing candle and the sun! I pray you to read Massilon’s sermon on the divinity of Christ, and then the wholeNewTestament, after which be a Socinian if you can. 1 - James Madison (4th president), chief architect of the constitution stated in 1785: Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls… in the study and the practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system. 1 - Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia (six different times), stated: Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only lawbook, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited!…What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be. 1 - Thomas Jefferson (3rd president) stated in Query XVIII :